Thursday, May 14, 2015

Poe 1977, Pt. 2

Marvel Comics (at times in its early history sometimes referred to as Timely or Atlas)
was always a 2nd-level publisher-- somewhere in the middle as far as
quality was concerned-- whose specialty was flooding the market with
imitations of whatever was then currently popular.

Before MCC #28, the company had done the occasional story "loosely" inspired by POE, such as "The Killer Who Walked Like A Man", inspired by "The Murders In The Rue Morgue" in LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #10 (Oct'49), "The Face Of Death", inspired by "The Masque of The Red Death" in ADVENTURES INTO WEIRD WORLDS #4 (Spring'52), "The End", inspired by "The Pit And The Pendulum" in SPELLBOUND #2 (Apr'52), or "Masquerade Party", inspired by "The Masque Of The Red Death" in STRANGE TALES #83 (Apr'61). When they got back into horror in the late 60s, they began doing adaptations that made notable changes to the stories (as Hollywood was often known for), like "The Day of The Red Death" in CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #2 (Dec'69) and "The Tell-Tale Heart" in CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #3 (Feb'70).

Thanks to the diligence of Don McGregor, their 2nd stab at...

"THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM"

...and the 2 other stories in the same comic, may be their only really "authentic" adaptations of POE.